Valero boosts imports of Venezuelan oil as sanctions loom: data

U.S. refiner Valero Energy Corp this year boosted its imports of Venezuelan crude ahead of U.S. sanctions over the country’s disputed presidential election and as other customers received less of the OPEC-member’s exports, according to Thomson Reuters trade flows data. Venezuelan oil production has tumbled to a multi-decade low this year, cutting shipments to buyers in the United States and elsewhere and worsening a severe economic recession. Its crude exports averaged 1.19 million barrels per day (bpd) in the January-April period, 28 percent less than the same period in 2017. The country’s exports this month also have been hit by ConocoPhillips’ moves to seize PDVSA cargoes and storage facilities in the Caribbean to pay a $2 billion arbitration award over a 2007 expropriation of […]